UF wins award for support of businesses owned by minorities, women

Published: December 22 2010

Category:Announcements, InsideUF, Top Stories

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida was recently recognized for spending more than $15 million in the last fiscal year with businesses owned by minorities, women and service-disabled veterans.

The Florida Department of Management Services Office of Supplier Diversity presented a diversity award to UF as “University of the Year.” It was among seven awards given at the 2010 AT&T MatchMaker Conference and Trade Show.

The award also recognizes UF’s business mentoring initiative, which matched seven small companies with seven large ones in the area of construction. The 12-month program involved a series of monthly meetings, networking events and informative sessions with UF representatives and the mentoring teams. At the completion of the year, one of the mentor/protégé teams successfully competed on a UF project as a team and was awarded a major construction project.

During the current year, the university expanded the mentoring program from seven to 10 mentor/protégé teams with the additions of an architect/engineer, office supply company and moving services company.

Participants in the program are from around the state. For a list of the mentoring teams, go to www.sbvdr.admin.ufl.edu.

“The success of the mentoring initiative and the recognition of UF by the state is a direct result of the commitment and the efforts of UF as a campus community and the business partners that have readily accepted the challenge of helping to make this a reality,” said Faylene Welcome, director of UF’s Small Business and Vendor Diversity Relations Division.

The Office of Supplier Diversity certifies more than 5,000 minority-, women- and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses in Florida. To learn more about the Office of Supplier Diversity, call 850-487-0915 or visit www.osd.dms.state.fl.us.